Lars Tiffany Out as Virginia Men's Lacrosse Head Coach

Lars Tiffany, who led Virginia to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship this season and national championships in 2019 and 2021, will not return as the school's head men's lacrosse coach next season.

Virginia issued a brief press release on Monday morning that read in its entirety:

Virginia Athletics announced today (May 18) Lars Tiffany will not return as head coach of the men’s lacrosse program.

Tiffany posted a 108-51 record, including back-to-back national championships in 2019 and 2021, in 10 seasons at Virginia.

A national search will begin immediately.

Rumors had circulated on social media last week that Tiffany would not be coming back, but according to sources, Tiffany had had no conversations with the Virginia administration about his future following a loss to Georgetown in the first round of the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship. His contract, extended in 2022, ran through the end of this academic year.

Tiffany came to Virginia after leading Brown to the 2016 national semifinals and inherited a Virginia program that was coming off two losing seasons in the previous four years and had gone just 1-15 in league games over those four years. 

After an 8-7 season in 2017, Tiffany returned the Cavaliers to the NCAA Tournament in 2018 and then won back-to-back national championships in 2019 and 2021 (no tournament was held in 2020 due to COVID). Virginia also reached the NCAA semifinals in 2023 and 2024 before slipping to a 6-8 record last year.

Virginia started slowly this year with a 3-4 record, but turned the season around and the Cavaliers won the ACC championship, beating Notre Dame and North Carolina in the conference tournament. The season came to an abrupt end when Georgetown pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the No. 4 seeded Cavaliers 14-10 in the NCAA tournament.

Before coming to UVA, Tiffany won a share of four Ivy League tournaments at his alma mater, Brown, including a magical 2016 season when the Bears went 16-3 and took Maryland to overtime in the national semifinals. He also spent two seasons as the head coach at Stony Brook in 2005 and 2006. In his 22 seasons as a head coach he has compiled a record of 224-120 and has had just two losing seasons, a 6-8 mark at Brown in 2011 and last year's 6-8 season at Virginia.

As a player, Tiffany was a two-time captain at Brown, playing for Dom Starsia, who like Tiffany, left Brown to become the coach at Virginia. Tiffany replaced Starsia at Virginia following the 2016 season. A defenseman, Tiffany played in two NCAA tournaments at Brown, including the 1990 team that beat UMass for the school's first NCAA tournament victory.

A native of Lafayette, N.Y., Tiffany has also been active as a coach with the Haudenosaunee Nationals. He was an assistant coach of the 2018 team and the head coach for the 2023 team, helping the Haudenosaunee Nationals to bronze medal finishes at both world championships.